From: Jeff King <peff@peff.net>
Date: Tue, 11 Aug 2009 21:48:49 GMT
Subject: Re: [PATCH 5/8] Add a config option for remotes to specify a foreign vcs
Message-ID: <20090811214849.GA3868@sigill.intra.peff.net>
In-Reply-To: <alpine.DEB.1.00.0908111817490.4638@intel-tinevez-2-302>

On Tue, Aug 11, 2009 at 06:20:54PM +0200, Johannes Schindelin wrote:

> >        o   [user@]host.xz:/path/to/repo.git/
> 
> That is a valid concern.  I'd suggest to disallow @ and . in the protocol 
> name (maybe even everything non-alnum).  For shortcuts that really read 
> like "svn", I think it is not too much asked for to require adjusting the 
> URL (by prefixing ssh:// and adjusting the path).
> 
> If there is really anybody who uses Git via ssh to access a server called 
> "svn", we could just as well have a little fun with them, don't you agree?

It is not actually that unreasonable. I have remotes which point to:

  vcs:git/foo.git

where "vcs" is a shorthand for vcs.gtisc.gatech.edu, defined in my
.ssh/config (it's a machine which hosts several different version
control systems). So I could see somebody having something like "svn" if
they were, e.g., hosting a git-to-svn conversion on their company's svn
server.

And as far as asking people in such a situation to change, consider:

  1. No matter how small a change, asking for a change means you are
     breaking people's current config.

  2. ssh:// really is inferior, especially if you are typing it on the
     command-line as part of a one-off pull. It is really convenient to
     assume you start in your home directory (as above), and to be able
     to use tilde-notation to point to the home directories of others
     (e.g., "git pull vcs:~mike/foo.git").

-Peff